“Widening well-developed roads is not development”

Our work is to empower citizens, made possible by your donation. Click to Donate

The city administration maybe all set to widen roads, but citizens of south Bangalore are not all ready to give up their property. Residents along the 100 feet-wide Outer Ring Road (ORR), from Central Silk Board junction on Hosur Road to Nayandahalli junction on Mysore Road, have come together to form the Ring Road Property Owners’ Association (RRPOA), to carry out their protest against the city corporation’s plans to widen this 14.5 km stretch.

Advertisement

The association recently conducted a public meeting, calling all residents of the city who have been served TDR (Transfer of Development Rights) notices and whose houses are on roads slated to be widened by the BBMP.

Citizen Matters spoke to B N Venkatesh Murthy, core committee member of RRPOA. Murthy, 55, is an advocate and resides on the ORR in Banashankari 3rd stage. His property has also been marked for road widening.

Murthy is a straight talker. He and his association are firm in their stand against widening the southern ORR, and have already met Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, BBMP Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena and other highly placed people in government. They have also extended their support to residents in other parts of the city who have been affected similarly, like those on Dr Rajkumar Road in Rajajinagar.

In this free-wheeling conversation, Murthy opens up about the association’s position on road-widening, possible alternatives for city officials to look at and where the town planners are going wrong. “I plan for about 30-40 years of my life. What must the city planners do? They must plan for five generations, that is 300 years”, he says, pointedly.

Here are detailed excerpts from the interview. A summary of the key points raised by Murthy is also included as a box.

What is the association’s stand on road widening?

Association stand is the individual stand. I don’t think anybody would like to lose property. More particularly all the properties that are notified or proposed to be demolished are all well-developed areas of the BDA. The best layouts as on today have only been formed by the BDA.

Private layouts have compromised, that is, road width is rather very less, they have compromised on every aspect of civic amenity. But here what they propose to do is – Mysore Road junction to Hosur Road Silk Board is 14.5 kms approximately, since there is a road divider, two-way demolition will take place. It’s almost 29-odd kms. Throughout this road it is BDA, 100 ft road developed by BDA. Now in less than 20 years they want to widen by demolishing. There are hundreds and hundreds of not-developed layouts which have come up.

Throughout the 29 km stretch there’s only BDA layout. You look at the outer side of this ring road. Throughout it is either illegal layouts, revenue layouts or partially approved by BDA or not developed according to BDA plans. So what does that mean?

When this layout was formed 20 years ago, beyond this side, there was not one house except a couple of houses in Hosakerehalli. In the last 15-20, houses have come up in this area. And the authorities have allowed high-rise apartments to come up. So what will happen, the pressure of these roads, these unauthorised illegal revenue layouts, will fall on this road. So all of them will come to this road.

Murthy explains that the areas on the outer side of the Ring Road should be developed, which will in turn reduce the pressure on main roads. Image courtesy: Venkatesh Murthy

Assuming a situation that there is one more parallel road developed some where in the revenue layout. Then these layouts will have a good decent road. Real development will take place there. If development takes place, all people won’t use this (ORR) road only. People will take those alternate roads then. Pressure on the ORR will come down by more than 50 per cent. Just develop any alternate road here. There is no road at all in those areas now.

Before the NICE Road was developed, this road (ORR) was overcrowded. Once NICE Road came, though they charge very heavily, there is really no pressure here on ORR, except one hour in the evening. Even then you won’t get stuck for a long time. I haven’t seen a traffic jam on this road.

Over a period of years alternate roads have never been developed. Alternate roads are the only solution.

I’ll give you an example where you’ve travelled extensively. From Corporation circle to Mysore bank circle, is a small stretch, maybe a kilometre. It’s very wide. It must be about 200 ft. Can you drive at 50 km there?You can’t drive at 50 km at any hour of the day because you have autorickshaws at various speeds, two-wheelers at various speeds, bus and other three-wheeler goods traffic. Why is this happening? You have an almost 200 ft wide road and you can’t drive at 50 km per hour. This clearly shows it’s not one big road that is always important. It is always alternate roads which will solve the problem.

People in power will never understand because they have vested interests.

Now a lot of revenue layouts have come up. After some time there’ll be some fighting, then they’ll regularise. They will levy a fee of 40,000 to 1 lakh. It leads to Akrama Sakrama. The moment they collect the money, it is regularised. Once it is approved, two or three floors will be built, three families will stay there, pressure on the road increases. So consequently what will happen, many developed layouts will crop up, pressure on them increases. This is how politicians have ensured that the city never develops. They are intelligent in how to amass wealth.

I plan for about 30-40 years of my life. What must the city planners do? They must plan for five generations, that is 300 years. You go to Mysore, in front of the palace, have you ever seen a traffic jam? That city was planned 150 years ago. There was vision. There were Vishveshwaraiahs. Now we have r…s. These people don’t have vision.

Where do you widen? You can widen in old cities, old layouts. The best way to decongest the city. You have seen Goods Shed Road, Cottonpet, Balepet, Mamulpet – all are so congested. Now you have a lot of looms even today there. It’s a highly polluted and congested area. Just remove all those people and allot sites somewhere, improve that area, tell them let that be only for business, houses should not be there. Widen the road and give them land. They can do business there but then get back home elsewhere. Go outside the city. Why don’t you shift those looms outside? That is development. Where is the question of developing a well-developed layout?

The state government/local authorities gave approvals for establishment of automobile industries. They would have projected (five to ten years) their annual production of units of cars and submitted to the government. Evidently it was to the knowledge of authorities there would be more automobiles on the road and should have planned accordingly. Automobiles did not descend from hell to occupy our roads!

When plans were approved for high rise buildings, the authorities ought to know that the number of house holds increase, consequently the number of automobiles. They should have planned alternative roads before approving high rise buildings.

No revenue layout can can up without the connivance of concerned engineers/revenue officials. If this was not encouraged, pressure on well-developed BDA roads would not have been this much. Alternative roads ought to have been planned and developed.

The government should have come up with a master plan and allowed orderly development by private layout developers. Let BBMP/state government first allot alternative sites in any other BDA layout (giving choice, as far as possible, of layouts to citizens), at BDA rates and acquire the present sites at market value. Then they will understand the consequences of development for destruction.

Leaving ORR aside, what about road widening plans on arterial roads?

Arterial roads need to be developed. It is essential. But what is the alternative that is given to the people? The alternative that is required to be given is, ‘I am taking a well-developed layout at market value. See there is a guidance value for purpose of registration, then there is a market value. Everybody knows market value is higher than the guidance value. Everybody knows that registration will take place at guidance value and not market value. It’s to the common knowledge that there is an element of black money in every property deal. Take the market value, allot them sites in BDA layouts. Give them a choice.

So you do not favour compensation through a Development Rights Certificate (DRC) which is 1.5 times the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) one loses to land acquisition?

Nonsense. That is useful only in a place where there is shortage of land in a place like Bombay.

So you are going to fight against TDR unitedly?

We have conducted meetings. Nobody wants to lose their property. We are talking to 30 houses at a time and telling them about this. We will continue to do this.

Go to page 2 to see what BBMP and cabinet ministers have been telling Murthy and RRPOA on this testy issue.

What is the BBMP telling you?

See, a few months ago, a couple of us met the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. Even the BBMP Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena was there. At that time when we told them that our houses are going to be demolished, the Chief Minister asked Meena if this is the case. Meena said ‘No No only few houses will be demolished’. Completely different answer he gave. Then the CM told him, ‘No, make sure that only here and there a few buildings are demolished. These people have built their houses with their hard-earned money’. And then everybody clapped.

See, this is what they say. Then later I met Bharat Lal Meena at Ananth Kumar’s (Lok Sabha Member of Parliament) house, I told him about what he said in front of the Chief Minister. He just turned his head away. This is a senior IAS officer.

And look at this (points to a BBMP TDR notice sent to one of the residents on ORR). It is not addressed to anyone, no name is given. It has just been thrown inside the house compound. No mention of how much property one will lose, they’ve just said the road will be widened to about 45 feet. If I go throw a paper like this in the Commissioner’s office, will there be any respect? I am a respectable individual. The Commissioner is a respectable individual. How can they do this?

In 1995 CDP (Comprehensive Development Plan) this road was notified for 45 ft. So if they have notified, from 1995 to 2008 or 2009, BDA or BBMP should not have auctioned any plots, or they should have accounted for widening and then given the sites. But they haven’t done that. They have continued to auction till 2008. So there are people who have purchased plots as late as 2007 in the auction by paying market value of 6000 or 5000. Now is it not a fraud played on them?

From 1995 they should not have sanctioned building plans. They have sanctioned building plans and constructed buildings. Now you are demolishing. All these things are wrongs done by the government. So individuals who have waited, eight attempts, nine attempts, I got this site on my tenth attempt after fighting in the Court. So if a portion of my land is taken, how will I feel? Have I not been cheated by the government so openly? You look through an objective mind. Is it right on their part to do it?

Should we wait in the queue for ten years, take a site, construct, develop, and in 15 years get it demolished? And a revenue plot owner happily stays there without any fear? And he uses the main road. So basically this is for votebank, destroy the main road, all in the name of development.

What are the state cabinet ministers saying?

We met before the BBMP elections. Everybody orally says it is wrong except probably Mr Ashok (state Transport Minister R Ashoka). He was telling, ‘You are not united. If I break your house, if your house is demolished, the person behind you will be very happy because his house will face the main road’. So he very clearly, categorically, indicated, ‘You are not united’.

I have a lot of appreciation for his straightforwardness, the way he talked in the open meeting. Not many were able to appreciate what he talked about. But he clearly indicated – you are not united. ‘If your house is demolished, your neighbour will be very happy because it will face the main road and it will have more value’.

We have collected a lot of papers. We have our own method of fighting it out. We are trying to unite. How much we will, we don’t know. But we are working it out. If we are united, we will ensure that it will not be demolished. If there are cracks here which they (BBMP and state officials) can engineer, they are very capable, when they can throw a paper, they can do anything. If we are united, that will not happen.

If we fail in that, then we’ll lose. There is one more way we can’t lose – if sanity prevails in them. If they have wisdom, if they listen.

Recently, the RRPOA conducted a public meeting on road widening, where citizens voiced their concerns. Pic: Chetan Boray

I’ll give you an example. When a meeting was held a few days ago with regard to road widening, Mayor S K Nataraj came on behalf of R Ashoka (state Transport Minister). He said you need not be worried, for the next three years your houses will not be demolished. Everyone clapped.

Luckily for me, I spoke next. I asked him, ‘Next week you will be operated for a surgery. Can you live happily from now for the next one week? So many people here have clapped, I don’t know what to do. Should I laugh at you or at these residents?’ Many didn’t like what I said. They don’t like such openness.

We will compel them to make alternate roads. Use the same money to develop alternate roads. Yes, properties will go there. But that area will be developed. When you invest, it must be for real development. They say service roads will be developed later. Anywhere have you seen service roads reducing the burden of the main road? You’ll only see lorries parked there.

Some residents are concerned about the fact that even if they submit TDR forms, they will not receive the DRC on time. Your comments on this.

You touch any government department for anything, ask for a khata certificate, anything, openly they will ask for extra money. If you don’t give extra money, it will take a very long time. You will have to go three to five times. 20 days you’ll have to wait for a small thing. If you pay extra money, you’ll get it that afternoon. If you want to get things done, you must go with some money. Government officials are highly knowledgable. They know each and every rule so very well. That is why they are breaking them.

So there will be problems. It’s not a big thing. you’ll get DRC. But what will you do with the DRC? Who buys a DRC now? Now they are compelling builders to buy ten per cent DRC. They are trying to create a market for it.

Have you ever seen one traffic jam in Jayanagar? Except slow moving traffic near the shopping complex, you show me one traffic jam. Why is this not happening? Because even the cross roads are as wide as the main roads.

So who is responsible for this? Who rules this country? It’s the politicians. Administration is at their beck and call. Politicians are very shrewd in their job. They have concentrated power. (For instance) Why should police be under the control of politicians?

Any last comments?

I only pray to God that sense prevails on these people. Good sense, there is no substitute for good sense. ⊕

So say south Bangaloreans, on the BBMP’s widening plans for the Outer Ring Road between Silk Board and Mysore Road. Meet B N Venkatesh Murthy who offers alternatives and fiercely criticises the administration.

BBMP has a bunch of non-planners (I wish to call them jokers!) in planning department. First they create chaos in the old well planned residential areas and they start ranting about road widening citing traffic jams. A normal citizen of Jayanagar and J P Nagar is appalled to see the recent traffic chaos in Jayanagar 9th Block near Ragigudda area because of unthoughtful grant of permission to Bangalore Central, Chrome, Big bazaar etc for opening their massive shops bang on the road without any parking spaces. At the place of Chrome, it was Woodies earlier and they did not have parking issue because they had planned the space well with parking space left, but look at Chrome area now. Same issue is plaguing 8th Main area of Dollars layout. MK Ahmed market and lot of other big shops are coming up with NO parking space bang in the middle of residential area. People are just parking cars on the roads to do shopping be it real or window shopping. Congestions – bound to happen and beautiful residential sites ? BBMP cares a dirt for them.

The main culprit in Bangalore crashing down is because we have non-planners in our BBMP and BDA offices who are just creating chaos by creating unwarranted shopping complexes in wrong places and then making money at the peril of poor citizens of Bangalore.

Re.Narasim Katary’s views, I am sure his property is nowhere listed for demolition and his road is not in the 91 Nos listed.
It is very clear that he has not read several articles in Citizen matters about the incompetence of BBMP officials in all its activities and how they are bulldozing their way in a reckless manner. I expect educated and experienced people should think and try to find alternate solutions to this man made problems. People who are not concerned about others’ problems should mind their own business and keep off from commenting.

I thank Mr.Vishwas for his reply to my views. My apartment complex was built by Brigade Group . I have studied the drawings given by them to us. We have given to BDA 460 Sq.Mtrs of land free of cost along the length of the road for widening purposes before construction started. An area of 2400 Sq.Ft was also given free to KPTCL to establish an Electricity Distribution office . We have left lot of open space free as per the agreements with BDA. Now how can we afford to give more space now and what is the justification? On the opposite side, Deccan Herald is having a huge open ground without any build up. The road alignment could have been on that side saving the lives of 200 odd families . Another important point is that we have given a set off around the building as per Fire Service regulations which are mandatory. The cutting of a huge chunk of our property on the road side is totally against the mandatory regulations of the Fire Dept as applicable to High Rise Building. There are alternate methods for easing the traffic without widening the road. I suggest that all those interested people should attend the meeting convened by ” Save Bangalore Committee ” on 4th July at 10.30 AM at NBA Bhavan, cubbon Park to take their advice and solve issues across the table before any damage is done to an existing residential complex .
I am available on my mobile 99003 09163 so that people like Mr.Vishwas can see our complex and how the problems can be solved without loss of property.

It is a common dilemma: the benefits are global but adverse impacts are local.

Venkatesh Murthy exemplifies the frustrations of the dilemma very articulately. He recommends many alternatives that result in adverse impacts being shifted elsewhere.

A limited access minimum four lane Outer Ring Road is essential in a major metropolitan area such as Bangalore. Given the expected development in Bangalore it would be prudent to have an eight lane ring road.

Mr. Murthy’s complaints about the incompetence of concerned authorities is a tiresome and tiring story. Young people like him should enter politics and improve the system. Politics is a noble calling. It is not meaningful to sit on the sidelines and whine about politicians. If all the genuinely concerned people who have commented so far decide to enter politics the system will improve significantly.

Mr. Murthy makes an excellent point when it comes to compensation. Regrettably Guidance Value has very little connection to market value. Equally regrettable is that the current Bubble Value of properties in Bangalore is out of sync with true market values.

The most helpful way to address the large difference between Guidance Value and Bubble Value is to commission two independent property appraisals by qualified and experienced appraisers and arrive at a reasonable value.

I believe that Mr. Murthy is entitled to a fair compensation. I also believe that Bangalore needs an eight lane Outer Ring Road.

People who are so opposed to a high calibre ring road, admittedly out of genuine concerns for adverse impacts, may have to seriously ask themselves the kind of metropolis they want.

For some reason the story left me with the impression that the larger public interest of a high speed Outer Ring Road was under emphasized. Did I get the story line wrong?

Mr Bhanu Prakash,
I agree vehicle growth has to be controlled – and Karnataka is already on the right path with a 14% vehicle tax. You can argue that this can be increased further, but there is an economic cost to that. Till there is an efficient public transport system, policies to reduce vehicles will have a negative impact on movement of people and goods. In any case, this has another control mechanism in the form of fuel prices – it is only a matter of time before a liter of Petrol or Diesel will hit Rs. 100 – and will depress traffic.

Mr. Srinivasan, I agree with you that the area where the Brigade apartment is situated on Uttarahalli road, it is probably too late to do anything without destroying value as well as peace of mind to many people. Actually what I had in mind for 4-laning was the stretch of Uttarahalli road from the Uttarahalli Lake till Mysore road via RajeshwariNagar where there are not many big buildings and is relatively undeveloped. Further, if you consider traffic coming from Mysore Rd side, there is a natural split after the lake – one towards the rest of Uttarahalli Main road to Banashankari and other Subramanyapura road to Kanakapura road – where traffic can get easily divided. So my suggestion is to ease traffic by building roads peripherally in areas which are not very dense and will have fewer issues during land acquisition.

This also brings to focus the problem of zoning and enforcing regulation – are you positive that your apartment builder did not violate any rules during construction? That all the rules regarding offset from a main road or from a peripheral wall have been followed. That it was built as per approved plans does not mean much as we know that any plan can be sanctioned for a fee – If one BDA engineer had granted a plan, another BBMP official can challenge a building for violations. Which is why apartment buyers have to hold builders accountable at the time of construction rather than trying to defend a property 10 years down the line.

And this is precisely why these issues should be discussed and debated openly, as the considerations of a larger set of people will come out into the open, rather than the limited understanding of a few people (eg. BBMP).

Why Dont the traffic police & public transport department enforce a law, where an individual family is allowed only on car (i.e. one car per family) which will bring down the number of cars on road and also help in revenue of BMTC & other public transport also.

Road widening is not the solution. As long as the number of private vehicles on road are brought down.

well everything looks good to hear Mr Vishwas but heavy increase in vehicular count day by day is causing this chaos.
Any amount of technique would really not help because the root cause is increase in vehicular population and so many vehicles from outside state are running without any registration in karnataka .
Our known family friends are very upset with the fact that their house is marked for road widening and most of their property will go,they are very depressed with this fact they have been living their since 30 to 35 years .
I am not here to deny ur ideas Mr Vishwas but any amount of ideas wll not improve .
Government should stop growth in bangalore and somehow the vehicle population should be brought down That would be the best solution.
Pressure should be put on government to stop growth and bring down vehicle population.
And theme park outside karnataka for an abudabi absed business man .
Who wants this theme park we want more trees cant believe politicians are still thinking of fancy improvement rather than addressing people frustration about road widening.

I am very sorry to state that Mr.Vishwas does not have any knowledge about problems of widening of Uttarahalli Main Road. I am a resident in one of the big complexes in that road for the past 7 years. The complex houses more than 200 families . The building was built in the year 2000 as per approved plans. I have studied the road alignment and it is just not possible to expand the road on the building side even by one foot since the entry and exit to the Basement where the entire infrastructure of the housing complex is situated will be destroyed.Apart from that, the Electric supply ,Water Supply,Sewage and Garbage disposal will also be seriously affected. The BBMP planners have failed to understand that there is a huge open area across the road and the road alignment could have taken that into account rather than destabilising 200 odd families under one structure. Moreover there are several bottlenecks on the entire stretch of Uttarahalli Road and beyond to Kengeri where severe traffic jams can take place.This road narrows down quite a bit at the end and the traffic flow comes to a dead stop. The plans to widen Our road is based on lack of planning and forethought of BBMP who have not thought of alternate ways to ease traffic congestion except widening of the road. This stretch can be made one way during peak hours which is only two times in a day . Heavy vehicles should be allowed only during night hours. Delicense vehicles older than 15 years and regulate issue of licenses for new vehicles. There should have been meetings between affected parties and the BBMP officials before such a drastic one sided decision is taken . I hope good sense prevails in the minds of those in power not to play with patience and tolerance of the Tax Paying Public. I invite Mr.Vishwas to have a discussion on several issues before passing on his comments without studying the problems of others.

More methods of decongesting Bangalore Traffic (contd….)_____________
7. Encourage more projects like the Nice road – in fact it would have been great if the Nice road was a full loop – and went beyond Hosur road towards Sarjapura as well as beyond Tumkur road towards Bellary road and beyond. _____________________________________
8. Use of more friendly and signal free traffic structures like Rotaries or traffic circles instead of flyovers or underpasses – great examples are Sajjan Rao Circle and K.R. Circle – which are never a bottle neck in any time of the day
9. Take a holistic approach instead of a band-aid or piecemeal approach – widening roads should be in addition to other means of containing the growth like managing public transport better (more predictable BMTC timings), making some neighborhoods pedestrian only – Avenue road, commercial street, Gandhi Bazaar etc.

More methods of decongesting Bangalore Traffic (contd…. sorry for multiple comments):_________
3. Owners in BDA layouts should not be punished because of additional traffic resulting from unplanned privately developed layouts (eg. Ittamadu). ___________________________________
4. Enforce zoning regulations. That means putting a stop to schemes such as Akrama-Sakrama. Akrama-Sakrama lets out one groups of people who are actively defying zoning regulations by expecting to pay a small non-punitive fine later and unjustly punishing owners who bought land in a “safe” BDA layout. _____________________________________
5. Bangalore still has many other arterial roads that need widening before “soft-targets” like Ring road – including some that the article points out – Goods shed road, road from Kathriguppe Ring road to Basavanagudi (thro’ Vivekananda and Vidyapeeta) etc. _____________________________________
6. Have a just and fair compensation process – a great example is the Bangalore Metro process – very transparent and paid a compensation at market rates (http://bmrc.co.in/news.html – Rehabilitation Package,Thomas Committee report,Valuation of structures, Fair Market Value & Valuation sheet and http://bmrc.co.in/acquisition.html)

The effort from this group of people is commendable and has changed my opinion of this issue. Initially I was thinking that widening the 100 ft road to a 150ft road is a good idea and that some property owners may have to co-operate in the larger good. _____________________________________
However now I am convinced that there are better ways of decongesting Bangalore than widening the ring road and other major roads in BDA developed areas: _____________________________________
1. BDA should advance the widening activity to roads that will be major arterial roads in a few years. For example, Uttarahalli road is a great connector from Banashankari to Mysore road. So it can ease traffic from the Ring road as well as divert a lot of traffic from Mysore road to other parts of the city. Further Uttarahalli road is still not prime land and acquisition will be relatively easier and cheaper now than in 5 years. There are many other examples of such 2nd tier roads around Bangalore that should be widened to 2+2 lane roads now rather than later. _____________________________________
2. BDA and BBMP should come up with a better mechanism of proposing plans and encouraging a public conversation of development plans. The current approach is to push through ill-designed plans without any public exposure or comment. There is an active effort to reduce clarity and transparency. This ill-planned approach is very obvious in various projects in and around Bangalore – the location of Devanahalli airport, the badly designed and implemented “magic box” underpasses, the ineffective two-level underpasses (eg. Magadi road) instead of the more useful three-level structure (eg. Dairy-circle).

Some sort of a violent action against the BBMP officials may happen soon. People are just fed-up with these dim-witted buffoons running the city and looking at every nook and corner to make some more money.

Great interview with openness.
It is true that the owners on ORR are worried and their future looks bleak in the event of losing well built residence/complex,meeting existing financial commitments. Many owners are aged between 50-60 years. Instead of leading a peaceful life, this Road Widening has disturbed, like a storm. Considering suffering anticipated by citizens, civic authorities, should drop road widening and announce publicly which will bring back cheers in society.

Yes its a great interview .
Hope the road widening stops and gives relief to local bangaloreans who have built their houses with hard earned money.
Yes we really dont understand the need for amusement parks ,already scarcity of water and where is the govt planning to give water to the park.
Somewhere the BSY govt pocket must be getting filled that’s why thy are approving such projects .
They really not in improving the city in a stablised matter but just filling their pockets as long as they are in government.
Finally we people are the sufferers.
Time to have a real fight against these atrocities.

Great interview and great expose of the colossal greed that underlies city planning here. Any available land is now meant for the amusement cities/parks that the BSY govt fondly calls Global Investment!!

Comments are closed.

Our Mission

Catalysing better cities by empowering citizens with the right knowledge and understanding.